WHEN PRAYING FOR ANOTHER IS AN EXCUSE FOR INACTION AND A MEANS OF SELF-APPROVAL

No matter how much you suffer to help somebody you get a reward. Self-approval. You approve of yourself just for trying. The person whose fortunes change after you pray for them will make you feel approved by them. You feel, "They may sense that the prayers of people like me turned things around for them and that it was not all luck." That feeds your self-approval.

 

Even believers must hold that at least some people only pray for they don't want to feel bad about not helping you and they want the emotional reward of thinking that their prayer helps more than anything else could. While they feel that way, you are left in a bad situation or one that has worsened and their physical intervention could have made a positive difference. They also have to admit that those who pray may not see that they have these sick attitudes.

 

How do we know if most people are like that? If prayer is too much like that then prayer cannot really be considered a good thing. It can only succeed in having that amount of bad influence if there is something wrong with it in the first place. Maybe we only think we should be doing it and it does not really suit us.

 

Pope Francis 2020, "Where there is God, there must also be man. Sacred Scripture is categorical: 'We love because He first loved us. He always goes before us. He is always waiting for us. If someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. Indeed, whoever does not love his brother whom he sees cannot love God whom he does not see. If you pray many Rosaries a day, but then gossip, you have a grudge, that is not praying."

 

If you are not praying and saying all those prayers then you are getting a good feeling of some kind. All we are saying is that this is happening even with prayer Francis approves of. Most type of prayer would be akin to those bogus Rosaries!

 

People who swear by prayer and hold grudges and provoke religious segregation and hate have always existed. Prayer then must involve self-deception.

 

The Church then is aware of prayer that is only an excuse for not changing yourself and which you swear by. There is no way it can tell if its own "good" prayer is any better.

 

 

The WEB

 

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12608c.htm

Catholic Encyclopaedia. This discusses Quietism.

 

Books Consulted

 

BOOKS CONSULTED

 

A CATECHISM OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE, CTS, London, 1985

A HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY, VOL 6, PART II, KANT, Frederick Copleston SJ, Doubleday/Image, New York 1964

AQUINAS, FC Copleston, Penguin Books, London, 1991

BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL, Friedrich Nietzsche, Penguin, London, 1990

BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, Association for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, Dublin, 1960

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, Veritas, London, 1995

CHARITY, MEDITATIONS FOR A MONTH, Richard F Clarke SJ, Catholic Truth Society, London, 1973

CHRISTIANITY FOR THE TOUGH-MINDED, Edited by John Warwick Montgomery, Bethany Fellowship, Minnesota, 1973

CRISIS OF MORAL AUTHORITY, Don Cupitt, SCM Press, London, 1995

EVIDENCE THAT DEMANDS A VERDICT, VOL 1, Josh McDowell, Alpha, Scripture Press Foundation, Bucks, 1995

ECUMENICAL JIHAD, Peter Kreeft, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1996

THE GREAT MEANS OF SALVATION AND OF PERFECTION, St Alphonsus De Ligouri, Redemptorist Fathers, Brooklyn, 1988

HANDBOOK OF CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS, Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli, Monarch, East Sussex, 1995

HONEST TO GOD, John AT Robinson, SCM, London, 1963

HOW DOES GOD LOVE ME? Radio Bible Class, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1986

IN DEFENCE OF THE FAITH, Dave Hunt, Harvest House, Eugene, Oregon, 1996

MADAME GUYON, MARTYR OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, Phyllis Thompson, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1986

RADIO REPLIES, 1, Frs Rumble & Carty, Radio Replies Press, St Paul, Minnesota, 1938

RADIO REPLIES, 2, Frs Rumble & Carty, Radio Replies Press, St Paul, Minnesota, 1940

RADIO REPLIES, 3, Frs Rumble & Carty, Radio Replies Press, St Paul, Minnesota, 1942

REASON AND BELIEF, Brand Blanschard, George Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1974

REASONS FOR HOPE, Ed Jeffrey A Mirus, Christendom College Press, Virginia, 1982

THE BIBLE TELLS US SO, R B Kuiper, The Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh, 1978

THE BRIEF OF ST ANTHONY OF PADUA (Vol 44, No 4)

The Dark Side, How Evangelical Teachings Corrupt Love and Truth, Valerie Tarico, Ph.D, Dea Press, Seattle, 2006

THE GREAT MEANS OF SALVATION AND OF PERFECTION, St Alphonsus De Ligouri, Redemptorist Fathers, Brooklyn, 1988

THE IMITATION OF CHRIST, Thomas A Kempis, Translated by Ronald Knox and Michael Oakley, Universe, Burns & Oates, London, 1963

THE LIFE OF ALL LIVING, Fulton J Sheen, Image Books, New York, 1979

THE PRACTICE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD, Brother Lawrence, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1981

THE PUZZLE OF GOD, Peter Vardy, Collins, London, 1990

THE SATANIC BIBLE, Anton Szandor LaVey, Avon Books, New York, 1969

THE SPIRITUAL GUIDE, Michael Molinos, Christian Books, Gardiner Maine, 1982

THE STUDENT’S CATHOLIC DOCTRINE, Rev Charles Hart BA, Burns & Oates, London, 1961

UNBLIND FAITH, Michael J Langford, SCM, London, 1982